Cardiac valve pathologies (for example stenosis or insufficiency) are generally treated surgically either with repair techniques or with replacement techniques. Repair techniques are believed to provide higher life expectancy and less morbidity after the surgical treatment than replacement techniques because, as a number of experts in the field have found, an important factor in determining the life expectancy and the morbidity lies in the conservation of native valve leaflets and chordae tendineae.
Valve repair techniques are characterized by the preservation and the restoration of the native valve leaflets and chordae tendineae, which are instead removed in valve replacement techniques in order to create the desired conditions for receiving the prosthesis at the implantation site.
However, the development of the cardiac valve prostheses in terms of structures, materials and fluid dynamics properties have come now to such a stage that even though a valve repair may provide a higher life expectancy due to the lower degree of alteration of the human body, a similar life expectancy is believed to be achievable also with such prostheses.
It is therefore an object of this disclosure that of providing a heart valve prosthesis which allows to dispense with the technical problems outlined above. In other words, it is an object of this disclosure that of providing a cardiac valve prosthesis presenting, altogether, the following properties:
ease of implantation,
simple design, and
improved life expectancy and lower morbidity after treatment for the patient.